EIF 26: Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Tribute to Alfred Brendel

Pierre-Laurent Aimard honours the late Alfred Brendel, his regular musical partner, with a characteristically imaginative programme.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard – ‘one of the most essential keyboard advocates of our era’ (The Guardian) – enjoyed a close professional partnership and friendship with pianist and composer Alfred Brendel. In the third of our Brendel tribute recitals, he offers a characteristically imaginative programme of works close to both their hearts.  

Brendel had a particular fondness for Franz Schubert. Aimard performs some of Schubert’s shorter lyrical works alongside finely crafted miniatures by his own long-term collaborator György Kurtág – himself a Schubert devotee.

Aimard has also chosen a selection of Ludwig van Beethoven’s alternately witty and tender Bagatelles – another Brendel favourite. He juxtaposes them with a work by the composer who dubbed Aimard ‘the best pianist for me’ (The New York Times): György Ligeti’s inventive and virtuosic Musica ricercata. In Aimard's recent performance of works by Kurtág and Ligeti, The Telegraph described Brendel’s spirit as ‘smiling down on us’. 

Presented by Edinburgh International Festival